Twitter Gets Ready To Take Microsoft To Cleaners

Twitter is choosing between Microsoft and Google for a search-ad partner, Kara Swisher says.

Which means that, more to the point, Twitter is playing Microsoft and Google off each other. And we know who's likely to win (lose) that one.

The chosen "partner" will presumably be given the exclusive right to put search ads on Twitter's pages. If Microsoft behaves the way it usually does in these situations, it will pay whatever it takes to "win" the deal. Google, meanwhile, still smarting from getting taken to the cleaners on a disappointing MySpace deal, will probably be gun shy.

So Twitter will do its best to persuade Microsoft that Google is willing to break the bank, and Google probably won't do anything to discourage that spin. And, in the end, Microsoft will probably be the one to break the bank and "win" a big exclusive search deal with bad economics.